v.171 – Masteria Through Time Update Preview

Considering the fact that they didn't even try to get input from any lore experts in the community?
It's frelcked, unless by some miracle kthxbainao was well-learned on the subject.

I'm sure this was designed long before KThxBaiNao joined Nexon, so he's got nothing to do with keeping the story straight.
They had a "lore expert" in the MLC, I've no idea whether he actually knows the lore or whether they consulted him.
They must have whatever notes NxProse left behind, and they could look up threads here and possibly elsewhere.
The story will definitely be different than the original plan, but there is some hope they didn't break canon in making it.

We shall see.

I'm sure this was designed long before KThxBaiNao joined Nexon, so he's got nothing to do with keeping the story straight.
They had a "lore expert" in the MLC, I've no idea whether he actually knows the lore or whether they consulted him.
They must have whatever notes NxProse left behind, and they could look up threads here and possibly elsewhere.
The story will definitely be different than the original plan, but there is some hope they didn't break canon in making it.

We shall see.

The "lore expert" started playing long after masteria's original release and I specifically remember giving them links to the summary we had on southperry. Most of the councillors, actually, had no idea about any of masteria's lore, nor had they ever even done cwkpq.

Let's hope this actually is worth remembering. We haven't had a real update in 7 years (and no, I'm not counting anything after that, including the Olivia storyline for Haunted House and the alien storyline, those are pretty much glorified fanfiction).

That is the thing with Masteria, its lore had/has so many loose ends to develop from that Nexon can simply take one and develop a whole blockbuster out of it. In fact its kinda a pity they seem to have taken all subplots and blended them into this.

I'm not gonna hold my hopes up to be honest. They didnt use the word Blockbuster themselves so it might be an update of lower caliber or at least not as polished. Besides Dawnveil and Commerci set bad precedents ending as huge areas with only 1 thing to do within them. I sure would love to see this end up as the old Crimsonwood keep update was though.

I'd like to find out how they will work around the fact that they pineappleed up the mythos by saying that the five heroes created a time seal preventing anyone from going back in time before the sealing of the Black Mage, which without explanation would be a massive plothole because Masteria fell hundreds of years before then, so traveling back to that time shouldn't be possible.

I always thought what Afrien said was they blocked the time in whcih the seal was formed with a spell, not all time before that. I suppose that would allow many plotholes but sounds more plausible unless you wanna put Freed and Afriend miles ahead all the other Heroes strength wise.

Let's hope this actually is worth remembering. We haven't had a real update in 7 years (and no, I'm not counting anything after that, including the Olivia storyline for Haunted House and the alien storyline, those are pretty much glorified fanfiction).

I'm not even counting this as a real update, unless Masteria is actually updated outside of the blockbuster with a real area, that is to say, not purely a training spot, like Scrapyard or the Corrupted World Tree, with quests and lore.

I'm not even counting this as a real update, unless Masteria is actually updated outside of the blockbuster with a real area, that is to say, not purely a training spot, like Scrapyard or the Corrupted World Tree, with quests and lore.

Fair enough, but I was mostly referring to an expansion to Masteria's lore.

I'm not even counting this as a real update, unless Masteria is actually updated outside of the blockbuster with a real area, that is to say, not purely a training spot, like Scrapyard or the Corrupted World Tree, with quests and lore.

Although I would like to see a new area that can be visited and has a main town with NPCs alongside some quests like the days of old; I do consider this to be a real update to Masteria.
Blockbuster content is filled with lore and goes into heavy detail. I honestly don't think NxProse would have gone to great lengths to have content produced for past Masteria; I think he would focus moreso on present day Masteria and expand onto Versal and (present-day) Krakia. The past would have probably been explained by a quick cutscene and through a lot of NPC text.

JMS' Silent Crusade revamp and new Mushroom Shrine are both Blockbuster content and while I can't read Japanese, from the videos both (Mushroom Shrine, especially) seem like they have a decent story.
(JMS' Mushroom Shrine also released Acts 1 and 2 with future acts to be released later)

(JMS' Mushroom Shrine also released Acts 1 and 2 with future acts to be released later)

Could you show me a link to this, please? I want to see it.

I always thought what Afrien said was they blocked the time in whcih the seal was formed with a spell, not all time before that.

I'm basing this off of quest dialogue in the Tera Forest plotline, the latest revision before they blocked it off. And it makes sense because why wouldn't the forces of evil be able to just go back in time and kill the heroes in their infancy?

The "lore expert" started playing long after masteria's original release and I specifically remember giving them links to the summary we had on southperry. Most of the councillors, actually, had no idea about any of masteria's lore, nor had they ever even done cwkpq.

absolutely disgusting.

Could you show me a link to this, please? I want to see it.

[video=youtube;dKUwg5ke_KI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKUwg5ke_KI[/video]
[video=youtube;thgRqxOTnTs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thgRqxOTnTs[/video]

Although I would like to see a new area that can be visited and has a main town with NPCs alongside some quests like the days of old; I do consider this to be a real update to Masteria.
Blockbuster content is filled with lore and goes into heavy detail. I honestly don't think NxProse would have gone to great lengths to have content produced for past Masteria; I think he would focus moreso on present day Masteria and expand onto Versal and (present-day) Krakia. The past would have probably been explained by a quick cutscene and through a lot of NPC text.

I greatly enjoy blockbusters, from Black Heaven to Heroes of Maple. The stories are nice adventures and they have a lot of amazing mechanics that we don't see in the main game, like from the one act of Heroes of Maple I played, the fight with the snow spider that crawls around on the ceiling which was quite enjoyable. Ultimately, I find this to be an issue, the increasing amount of blockbusters. Blockbusters would be really nice expansions to the game, but in reality, they aren't actually expansions. From a narrative perspective, yeah, it's great way to tell a story, but from a content perspective, I feel that it's somewhat lazy and cautious, cheap even. It's like, just a step above something like Skyrim's Radiant Quest system (which randomly generates quests, including the objectives and NPCs involved), it gives you the illusion of content; at least a blockbuster offers additional information, but at the same time, like a radiant quest, it doesn't majorly affect the game in a huge way because it's not actually integrated into the actual game. They could close it off one day and have to do nothing more than just taking out the NPC that let you access it in the first place, and nothing will have changed. The other issue with blockbusters is that so far they've been solo adventures. I tend to play alone, so I guess it's not a huge problem from, but MapleStory is an MMO, and some of the best content in the game shouldn't be locked in episodic, solo adventures. It's very much like Monster Life or FriendStory, I think, in that, it's basically a game within a game, like playing a solo RPG from within Maple.

Masteria is better than that. Like when Phantom Forest came out. I was so lost, but I was lost with other people. There were things to unlock, like Mo's shop, Joko's badge exchange, the Phantom Forest map, the Marker of Heroism. I realize it actually not all that different, but it felt different, it actually felt like I had some effect on the world, or at least, what I could access in the world, there was progression, you know? I guess, there is some sense of progression in doing blockbusters as well, but it feels more localized, and then you can just reset each act as well, just wipe out your progress like it was nothing.

A blockbuster is probably the best way to explore past Masteria, I admit, since it's more interactive than just hearing the story from an NPC and I don't mind if they end up making some retcons, especially not if they continue working on it. Plus, it's safe for them, like I said above, blockbusters have little effect on the game world (assuming this one doesn't as well, of course), and I think they're hesitant to really change Masteria after the alien invasion fiasco. But a past Masteria blockbuster ranks quite low for me compared to a proper expansion to the current Masteria, since I've already had lingering issues with blockbusters, great narrative content aside, combined with the extended length of time without a proper expansion, this has just turned into disappointment for me.

The "lore expert" started playing long after masteria's original release and I specifically remember giving them links to the summary we had on southperry. Most of the councillors, actually, had no idea about any of masteria's lore, nor had they ever even done cwkpq.

I just restored Isaac's compendium for more information.

I greatly enjoy blockbusters, from Black Heaven to Heroes of Maple. The stories are nice adventures and they have a lot of amazing mechanics that we don't see in the main game, like from the one act of Heroes of Maple I played, the fight with the snow spider that crawls around on the ceiling which was quite enjoyable. Ultimately, I find this to be an issue, the increasing amount of blockbusters. Blockbusters would be really nice expansions to the game, but in reality, they aren't actually expansions. From a narrative perspective, yeah, it's great way to tell a story, but from a content perspective, I feel that it's somewhat lazy and cautious, cheap even. It's like, just a step above something like Skyrim's Radiant Quest system (which randomly generates quests, including the objectives and NPCs involved), it gives you the illusion of content; at least a blockbuster offers additional information, but at the same time, like a radiant quest, it doesn't majorly affect the game in a huge way because it's not actually integrated into the actual game. They could close it off one day and have to do nothing more than just taking out the NPC that let you access it in the first place, and nothing will have changed. The other issue with blockbusters is that so far they've been solo adventures. I tend to play alone, so I guess it's not a huge problem from, but MapleStory is an MMO, and some of the best content in the game shouldn't be locked in episodic, solo adventures. It's very much like Monster Life or FriendStory, I think, in that, it's basically a game within a game, like playing a solo RPG from within Maple.

Masteria is better than that. Like when Phantom Forest came out. I was so lost, but I was lost with other people. There were things to unlock, like Mo's shop, Joko's badge exchange, the Phantom Forest map, the Marker of Heroism. I realize it actually not all that different, but it felt different, it actually felt like I had some effect on the world, or at least, what I could access in the world, there was progression, you know? I guess, there is some sense of progression in doing blockbusters as well, but it feels more localized, and then you can just reset each act as well, just wipe out your progress like it was nothing.

A blockbuster is probably the best way to explore past Masteria, I admit, since it's more interactive than just hearing the story from an NPC and I don't mind if they end up making some retcons, especially not if they continue working on it. Plus, it's safe for them, like I said above, blockbusters have little effect on the game world (assuming this one doesn't as well, of course), and I think they're hesitant to really change Masteria after the alien invasion fiasco. But a past Masteria blockbuster ranks quite low for me compared to a proper expansion to the current Masteria, since I've already had lingering issues with blockbusters, great narrative content aside, combined with the extended length of time without a proper expansion, this has just turned into disappointment for me.

You make really good points. I guess it is true that Blockbuster content is much more isolated and much more linear than the intricate mazes of Phantom Forest and things of that nature.

I just restored Isaac's compendium for more information.

Oh yes! Thank you. I've been wondering where the hell this went and I was about to lose my mind thinking that this thread was somewhere else other than Southperry. Did Isaac or anyone else post similar Masteria related info up that was hidden from us during the purge?

Oh yes! Thank you. I've been wondering where the hell this went and I was about to lose my mind thinking that this thread was somewhere else other than Southperry. Did Isaac or anyone else post similar Masteria related info up that was hidden from us during the purge?

Nothing I could find with a quick search, other than Maple's Story!, which only has a small part about Masteria, but is really interesting to read, for those who thought that until we got the Black Mage, Maple had no story.

I just restored Isaac's compendium for more information.

I gave them an archived version of this. Glad it's been restored!

Masteria was my favorite content ever released, by far.

-snip-.

I think you make some excellent points and while I wasn't all too thrilled about their being a blockbuster either, they don't necessarily say that it is. Now, I may be reaching but couldn't the different acts say just be the different stories of each area? I mean I think it's still POSSIBLE that the acts are just different stories told in the different areas but we will still get Versal, and Krakian Jungle as actual areas. Reason I say this is because looking through the trailer there seems to be a couple maps with monsters without timers. Just my thought. Old Sappe Villiage I think is limited to these Acts but we don't know. Time will honestly tell on this one. I agree with your points but something really cool COULD come out of this. They could be revamping Masteria along with it. By that I mean the monsters. I think they learned their lesson with touching the maps. Let's be honest. It's in a desparate need of monster revamping. Make the area viable again. I'm all for diversity in training. I don't think this is the ONLY thing that will come out of it. Just story and story tied maps, but again we shall see. Here's hoping for the best but also mentally preparing for the worst!

Am I the only one super excited for Shanghai!? I've waited for this for years! Granted it's not what it was..but hey! It gives me hope that one day we'll get Veracent!! I don't know what Beasts of Fury season 2 is. If anyone is willing to give me some info that would be really appreciated!

So I have to wait till summer to get the Magnificent Soul event? Okay nexon, fine. I'll just deal with 300 magnus shards then.

I don't know what Beasts of Fury season 2 is. If anyone is willing to give me some info that would be really appreciated!

Basically a series of mini games (can be hard but doable) for a useless title (which gives a +5 wa/ma active buff for 5 minutes but cd of 30 minutes 1 hour) and souls (Gold Dragon & Red Tiger souls).

11. Isle of Vigilance
The former base of the Shadowknights, currently being occupied by the remnants of the Raven Ninja Clan. This was a secret location which they kept completely separated from the Keep, and for this reason they were able to retreat here after it fell. Taggrin describes it as having been swamped by tidal waves caused by Masteria's disappearance. There is a huge building here, called the Watchtower, which is where the Shadowknights kept up their fight for Crimsonwood. It seems likely that as the story of the Raven Ninjas unfolds, we may eventually pay a visit to this place.

Kind of wonder if this place could make an appearance if we go into past Masteria, but that's likely a stretch.

The "lore expert" started playing long after masteria's original release and I specifically remember giving them links to the summary we had on southperry. Most of the councillors, actually, had no idea about any of masteria's lore, nor had they ever even done cwkpq.

You are an insider of MLC, So i guess it might be natural for you to know much. Mind spilling some beans?